PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 62

PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE

(By Primrose McConnell, B.Sc., M.R.A.S.E.)

SPRING CHEESE.

It lias always been the custom of buyers to insist 6n paying for cheese “made on fodder”—that is. before the cows go out to grass—a lower figure than that given for the summer-made variety, on the plea that the quality was not up to the mark. It was upheld that the natural grass gave a flavour or quality to the produce not found iD the springmade material; and probably this was the case to a certain extent though not so much as was maintained. Times are changed now, however, and we have had years of scientific training in the making of cheese, and many deficiencies in this respect have been removed. The colder weather in spring hinders the natural “ripening” of the milk in preparation for the rennet, and this used to be aided (and is yet in many good dairies by the addition of a little soured whey, at the rate of about one quart to every 30 gallons of milk. More recently we have gone in for the use of “starters” for the same purpose. A starter is. in effect, a preparation of a pure culture of the lactic acid microbe, which, added to the milk, produces the same result in a shorter time, and without the danger of other taints which are apt to be in naturally soured whey- The same system of using “starters” being also now in vogue in ripening cream for buttermaking. By these means the natural deficiencies of spring-made cheese have been largely remedies, and they are now hot so far behind what are made in the flush of the summer season. It would be interesting to learn from some of the buyers of spring makes how they sell them again. Do the grocers who buy from them to retail get them at a reduced price, and do the public reap anv

benefit? I never knew myself of a purchaser over the counter being offered cheese at a penny a pound cheaper because the article was spring-made, though perhaps it may be done somewhere. ' . r WHEAT VERSUS POTATOES. There has been much writing and talking on the question of feeding the nation in time of war. Wheat has always been the bread com so long in the minds of the people that a scarcity of wheat means famine to most folks, and therefore the development of a powerful navy to keep command of the sea, and thus ensure the safety of the wheat ships is one of the first thoughts of our statesmen. It has thus come about that the value of some other crops for food purposes has become completely lost sight of. although they are in reality of more food value to the nation and would be more of a standleg than wheat in preventing a war famine. As far as acreage goes,-potatoes have quite equalled wheat for a long time, and are now ahead of it; while as to quantity of food per acre the wheat is nowhere in comparison. Thus an acre of wheat at 30 bushels yields less than a ton of food, while the average yield of potatoes of the British Islands is about seven tons, and over 20 have been raised in some special cases. Again, potatoes are “new/’ and being raised somewhere in the United Kingdom from December to October, thus form - a new supply for eleven months in the yet-r, while wheat only comes in one lot once a year. There is no wonder, therefore, that the potato is booming ah present, and those people who are concerned about national grainaries, etc., for wheat, to keep a store against a war famine, might usefully transfer their energies to storing up potatoes in national clamps. WINTERING CATTLE OUTSIDE. In the south country young stock and dry stock are always wintered outside in the fields without any housing at all, and in most years they come through very well with the help of _a little rough fodder given them, putting the same along a hedge bank or some such place. In many cases it is not even necessary to give them this —at least not till February or March—if there is any rough grass left on the pastures- at ail. The writer in his own case 'is only now giving the young cattle some spoiled hay from tops and outsides of stacks, while the poorest are having a little cake added on. As soon as the grass comes, and the weather is a little more genial, they will pick up once more and thrive bet-, ter than those animals which have been pampered up in yards all the time. The object of this note is to call attention to a method of wintering cattle which has been successfully practised by some farmers known to the writer, and which is worthy of extension. The plan is to leave un.cut a field or part of a field on which a crop of hay has been .grown, for the feeding of the animals in winter. It seems foolish —when one comes to think of it —to go to all the trouble and expense and worry of making hay, alid stacking it up, and then in winter carrying it back out to the fields to feed the outside stock, and to obviate this the plan now followed by some is to ieave a certain number of acres in a convenient and sheltered place. When the ordinary grass is all eaten off, and the stormy or snowy weather comes, then the animals are turned into this piece, and the verdict of those who have tried this feeding on “natural-cured hay” is that the cattle do better than any way else. There is no more waste than in the other way, while there is infinitely less work and trouble. The writer will certainly try it if he has an opportunity next season. DECIMAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

There is a proposal now before Parliament to introduce the metric system of weights and measures, which was introduced by the French after the Devolution,, and is founded on the metre (about 39J inches), which is the one tenmillionth part of the distance between the equator and the poles of the earth. The system is of course decimal, but it starts from an unhandy, and indeed an unnatural basis. It is earnestly to be desired to have the decimal system of weights and measures instead of our present irregular and uncouth ones, but let us start from some of our existing standards. For instance, take the pound weight for a basis: 101 b would make a stone, 10 stones a hundredweight, and so on—with 10 ounces to the pound. Again, for volume take a gallon; 101 bof water is a gallon exactly, so that if the gallon has ten pints in it, then a pound and a pint would be convertible; for length take 10 inches to the foot, 10 feet to the pole, and so on. It is, of course, a matter for a Committee or a Commission to hammer out the particular basis to be adopted for length, area, weight, volume, money, etc., but so long as the systems adopted are decimal the old natural standards would be the best. The metric system is decimal, and it has been adopted by several civilised countries, but that is no reason why a decimal system of our own would not he better.

CLEANSING COWS,

There is very often a difficulty with some cows in getting rid of the afterbirth. ' Animals otherwise in a perfect state of health will have the placenta

hanging on to them for days, and indeed until it becomes putrid,- if nothing is done to help them after calving. Manufacturers of veterinary medicines are usually inclined to “boom” their own specific preparations for “cleansing” the animals, and it is possible some of them may be helpful, though the writer has not come across any such in his own experience. If the after-birth does not come away of itself within twelve hours or so after parturition, then it should be helped, because- after that time it begins to decay, has a fearful smell, and may cause blood poisoning. A good plan is to hang a weight on for a time, but the method , adopted by the writer is to take a handful of straight straw, and twist it round the hanging part and keep on twisting. By this means the cotyle-dons—-“roses” —are separated from the corresponding parts on the sides of the worm, and the whole affair comes out. This operation must, of course, be done while the tissues are fresh, for if partly decomposed, then the outside part may break off and leave some behind to set up festering decay. It is seldom this method fails, while the twisting and pulling gets a good grip of an unsavoury handful. It is, of course, a good plan to give the animal a purgative at the same time, such as a pint of linseed oil or a mixture of a pound of Epsom salts with two of treacle —just to keep the system open. WARBLES AND CATTLE. The late Miss Ormerod did a great service to stock-owners in calling their attention, to the loss that accrued to them from the attacks of the warble fly on their cattle, and the means of preventing the same. Miss Ormerod showed that the way to treat this pest is by putting a dressing of some-sort on their “hosts’ ” backs about this time of the year, and thus killing them before they grow large or become irritating. The grubs breathe by pores at their tail end. which end is kept opposite the hole in the skin, and thus if anything chokes up this hole or the breathing pores then they die. Some “smears” were brought out at one time and much used, but they were greasy and sticky, and the dirt which thus adhered to the backs of the animals was most unsightly.- The writer has for many years used common sheep dip—McDougall’s—and found it perfectly efficacious. About half a pound per head is mixed up, poured over the animal’s back with an old teapot, and mopped in with a bit of old sacking. Not five per cent, of the warbles will escape this, while the taste or smell of the dip will hang about the animals sufficiently to keep the flies off well into the summer, or until washed off by the rain. When the dip has dried on for a few days —in the case of milk cows —it may be curry-combed off, as it has then done its work. SANITARY GROOMING.

The mention of curry-combing cows brings up another point to which the attention of farmers' requires to he called. It was pointed out in a former note that the grooming of caws was a desirable practice for dairy farmers to carry out, hut it now appears that the sanitary authorities are trying to make it a punishable offence to leave the cow ungroomed. A correspondent in one of the farm papers calls attention to the fact that the Islington Borough Council summoned a cowkeeper for not keping his cows groomed. The prosecution failed, but it is an indication, however, that we must be up and doing in the matter of the sanitary laws now before Parliament, for if' they pass as they stand, then there wdll be no limit to the amount of persecution inflicted by the officials when once they get the power. PASTURE EXPERIMENTS. In the last volume of the R.A.S.E. Journal is a summary of the results of the experiments carried out in various districts on pasture lands, and written by Mr Hall, of Rothamsted. The total outcome goes to show that the manuring which is successful in one district may he a failure in another. Out of six stations or countries where these experiments were tried, basic slag gave the best results in four cases, and dung in two cases, to put the matter generally. Various other results were arrived at where mixed minerals plus dung, or plus lime were tried, as also where feeding stock with care was carried on. Some of the general conclusions arrived at by the writer may usefully be given; it is better to cut for hay every year and manure accordingly, rather than to cut and graze alternate years and depend on the grazing to replenish the soil; a 'lot of manure on poor land will be wasted because there are no roots to take it up, and the quality of the grass must he first slowly graded up: land for hay alone should have mainly nitrogenous manure, but for pasturing it should have some mineral manure; on old grass land an occasional dressing of half-a-ton per acre of ground quicklime does good; on strong clay soils basic slag is better than superphosphate; on light lands nitrate, super and kainite may all he needed, while basic slag will give no return; heavy poor soils should have as much as 10 cwb of slag applied to begin with, while light soils generally require potash and so on. The total experience goes to prove that almost every

man must experiment for himself. Those cases under discussion show what happens at these particular experimental stations, and this gives us a general guide, but for particular information one must rely on himself. FARMERS AND INSURANCE. It*is doubtful if farmers insure as much as they ought to do. The delinquencies or narrow settlements of insurance offices should not prevent us from making some preparation for a rainy day. Every man with a wife and family ought to be insured, but apart from this general fact there is the case of special farm insurances, which are often neglected, and which ought to be attended to. The ordinary general fire insurance is. of course, commonly attended to—though few insure as fully as they ought to. .and only realise their shortage when they have a fire and find that the company will only pay on a pro rata proportion of the loss—but the accident insurances are neglected. Employers are now liable in damages to servants for any accidents happening—apart from the moral liabilities in the matter —and every employer is wise now' who insures against such. Besides ordinary accidents there are special insurances against accidents with thrashing machines, chaff cutters, etc., and, indeed every possible kind can be insured against. In the writer’s district a lob of business is done in insuring crops against hailstorms, special “floating” policies are issued against loss of haystacks by fire, while of course there ar© the usual half-dozen of other kinds of insurances. All these, of course, total up to a biggish sum' per annum,, but the writer can testify from dear-bought experience that it nays. NERVOUS OOWS. It may perhaps surprise some people to hear that the most nervous cows are the best milkers. The idea was first promulgated by Mr Hoard, editor of “Hoard’s Dairyman,” and ex-President of the State of Wisconsin Agricultural College, where Prof. Henry and Dr Babcock carry on their world-famous dairy experiments. He found that the ability to yield milk was intimately connected with the nervous organisation of the animal, and that the more highly the nerves of the animal were strung—so to speak—the greater was the power to yield milk. _ This intimate connection between nerves and milk is very commonly exemplified in the phenomenon known as “holding up the milk”; if the animal has her temper ruffled, or is frightened or annoyed in any way, the milk ceases to flow easily. The cow does not knowingly keep her milk back, hut [simply the reflex action of her ruffled nerves causes astringency of the tissues of the milk bag, and the milk ceases to come until she gets into a calm state of mind once more The fat, phlegmatic specimen does not ruffle easily, and does not hold up her milk, but she will never yi&ld so well by the week or by the year as the other. On the other hand, the animal with the thin tail and the thin flank, the intelligent eye, and the quick movement is the one that will milk well if she gets the chance. It all depends, however, on the chance she gets. The man who hits her with his stool and swears every time he approaches her. will wreck such a cow in a fortnight. If. however, she is made a pet and kindly treated she will respond at the pail in an astonishing way, for her nervous vigour will then gen outlet in the secretion of rich milk. CULTIVATORS.

The time is approaching for the use of these m preparation for the root crop in many districts, while they have already been much in use for com land with some farmers. \Vith no implement has there been greater improvements during the last tiurty years than with this. The old implement was a heavy rigid tool with no wheels at all; the modern one is a light springy arrangement with wheels sometimes as high as those of a horse-rake; a seat also is provided for the driver, and the tool “holds” itself, and only the horses are guided. Some few years ago -the invention of the spring-tooth cultivator was introduced from America, ana great things were expected from this, but much disappointment has been the result. The springtooth is good enough for scarifying but not for real cultivation or stirring the ' soil, and when too much was tried these simply snapped. The writer has worked long with such an implement, but has had to order new tines in half-dozens at a time. The modern and most improved form is a combination of the old rigid tine with a spring setting or socket, and there are many on this principle now in the market. One drawback to the use of cultivators is that they ai e usually three-horse implements, . thus breaking up a pair of horses while in use. A two-horse implement is a useful form to have, and if that is too small to get over the ground quickly, then a second one does not use any more horses—four being as easily arranged for as three.

PIECEWORK IN FARM WORK. Farmers have often been found fault with by their critics for not adopting more fully the principle of payment by the piece than they do, but those critics have never done much at farming them-

selves. The great drawback to this principle in' farm work is the-.weather. It- would be quite easy to let ploughing ; to a‘ ploughman at so much peraqre—- ’. finding the horses and plough, etc., and the arrangement woiild hold as long as ’ the weather held .fine. Y'YV-nPn.. how- - ever, the floodgates are opened, as they •were last winter, and the *mah has to put his horses in the stable, then the system breaks down. Some critic may say'that hb.may be put on to l another piecework job; the asks, what other job? Two" or three men may . be • sent to the granary to dress a few sacks of grain to fill up their day, or a couple may be sent to throw the dung out of a loose-box into the yard and litter down •the same afresh, while another may go to cut lip some firewood—anything to make work, and fill Jip the time. How are these “odd jobs*’ to be put on piece- > work; how is the rate .of pay to be cal- - culated; and what farmer'or even professional clerk, could keep an account that would satisfy both; sides- When the pay-day came round. "A man can set type or put heads on pins, or make bobbins at a certain piecework rate, and the arrangement would hold for. weeks 'and months —perhaps years, but at farm < work the first wet week would upset everything. As it is, many things now are done hy piecework; in some districts milking is done by women -who . .•come, to the farm night and morning, inillsrten cows, and 'return home again' for a certain rate of pay (3s to os) per week. Hedging and clitching is generally done per rpd or chain;; thatching stacks at per square of 100 square feety while in many, districts the whole of the harvesting is let to'a squad of men at from 10s to 15s per acre —an arrangement which broke ' down completely, however, during . the last awful season. The principle of payment by result is good, and should be adopted as far as possible, but the one element of weather will prevent its universal use. in farm work. ■ •■• •• JERSEYS AND GUERNSEYS. ; These natives of the two Channel Islands, whose names they bear, are dairy cattle to ail intents and purposes, and 'are celebrated for yielding milk uncommonly rich in butter-fat. They are wholly distinct breeds, quite as much so as any other two breeds in the country, and the purity of their blood-'lias for a long time been carefully guarded by the local authorities. The peculiarly rich milk they yield is a quality madehereditary partly by the genial climate of the Islands, and partly, by the kindly , Avay they have been treated for generations. In point of fact, there are no breeds elsewhere whose breeding and management for centuries have been more carefully attended to. They are, of course by nature and habit unsuited to rigorous climates, but for all that they are held in higli esteem in the United States and Canada, The Jersejys are particularly elegant, and pleasing in form and colour, the latter being commonly fawn or silver grey, and they are much sought after as ornaments to the grounds of country gentlemen. The Guernseys are larger, coarser, less shapely, and their colour is a dull yellow patched with white; yet they are, perhaps, the more profitable of the two. These two breeds have been maintained in their purity by local Acts of Parliament which forbid the importation of other breeds into the Islands. So, at least, it is understood. The butter they yield—and they are essentially butter cows —is deeper and riched in colour than that of any other breed, and needs no artificial colouring. Some farmers,' indeed, have a few Jersey and Guernsey cows in order to improve the quality of the milk yielded by the rest, particularly when butter-making is a speciality. Americans think the Jerseys indispensable to the production of what they call “Gilt-edged butter.” GRASS-SEED SOWING. After the sowing of the spring corn comes the sowing of the grass or clover mixture on the fields intended for “seeds” next year. It is a custom in some cases to sow down without a crop, but the writer has never seen any benefit from this excepting that the grass comes a year sooner. Experiment has shown that the depth to which the seed is covered is an important point, and that three-fourths of an inch is the best allowance. In order to give the small fine seeds a chance, they should be sown behind a roller, and then harrowed in with medium heavy harrows. This gives them an even bottom to start on, and a good covering of soil. The “brushing” in with a bush-harrow recommended m some seedsmen's catalogues is a pernicious error, and has done a lot of harm in not giving, the grass a ohance at starting The best of all methods is to sow behind a ribbed roller (Cambridge), as the seeds fall into the “nicks” made by the flutings of the roller, and when this is followed by a light harrow which levels down and fills in these nicks, then a splendid job is made. The use of a seedbarrow is common, taking from 10 to 15 feet wide, but it requires a strong active man to work the same, while a mate to pull in front—or even a pony—is a great help, a third Jad being sometimes needed to guide, where there are no furrows to help the workers to keep to their proper widths. The fixing of

the seed barrow on to the rib-roller—as already hinted at-Rs' the next step iif progress, and the writer is waiting for 'some manufacturer to bring one out, if there is riot one already, out by somebody. There' is noßi'eason w.hy t\vp horses yoked abreast by a pole to a,' ribrotler, with a seat behind for the* driver, •and with the seed sower also behind (at his feet) should not all be workable by one man, and thus two jobs requiring, say, three men be done by ;ene alone at a single stroke. .